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So my Wife needed a new phone, and get out of T-Mobile, and on to a good family plan. Since I was with Sprint already the last year with my EVO 4G, I said get the Nexus-S this weekend, will be a great little phone compared to her old school MyTouch 3G.
So we went to the Sprint store my buddy is a Mngr at, and I got the bug and also picked up a Nexus-S 4G, and set us up on a killer family plan.
- What I like about the Nexus-S;
Lightweight and fits in pocket easily
Screen is beautiful
Battery life is longer than rooted EVO
Pure "vanilla" Google OS, clean with no bloatware
2.3.4 Video Chat for the Wife and kids
- What I don't like;
Miss the "Sense UI"
4" curved screen, makes it feel much smaller than the EVO's 4.3" flat tablet like display.
No Sprint Visual Voicemail
My EVO 4G was rooted with Myn's RS 5, and I LOVED it, but the phone felt a little too thick and bulky at times, and heavy in the pocket, especially with Summer now, the phone does not fit in a short sleeve pocket like the Nexus easily does. And even with netarchy kernel and all battery life still was crappy compared to rooted Nexus-S.
But I seem to really miss the "Sense UI" the most, just a bit of a shock getting used to vanilla Android. I liked the Sense e-mail app, for non gmail accounts. The dialer and contacts was nice. The keyboard was sweet with arrows keys. Stock Visual Voicemail was great.
Not too sure what to do now ? Keep the Nexus-S and wait for CM 7.1 ROM that supports 2.3.4 and see how I like that ? I was a big fan of Cyanogen back on my Nexus-One, but then got turned onto Sense. Or go back to EVO and upgrade to EVO 3D next month and wait for Myn's ROM on that beast ?
i went from an evo to the nexus s and am loving it. i really wanted that pure google and once i got it rooted, some useless apps removed it was even better.
for me, an overall better experience than the evo.
apreichner is in the process of porting sense to the NS, so there is a big chance we'll be seeing a fully functional sense port. Just have patience, the NS is a great phone
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA Premium App
tailsthecat3 said:
i went from an evo to the nexus s and am loving it. i really wanted that pure google and once i got it rooted, some useless apps removed it was even better.
for me, an overall better experience than the evo.
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I am getting much more comfortable with my Nexus-S 4G today, after a full work day of use. Loving the feel of it in the palm of my hand, rests so nicely, and the screen is gorgeous. The battery life on the Nexus is amazing so far, being unplugged for 6+ hours, and not even half drained yet, at 60% now, and that's with tons of phone calls and plenty of texting as well as web browsing. And still not even rooted yet, so no custom ROM's or kernels, can only imagine the battery life with a good netarchy
The EVO to me is borderline tablet big, not just the 4.3" screen, but was also very thick and heavy. Not a fun phone to carry around in light shorts in the Summer. But sometimes that was nice, making it feel like a mini laptop, with lots of space to work with, and the Sense e-mail and contacts were very well designed.
But the more I am with the Nexus-S, the more I like it. yeah I misses the Sense UI, but getting used to vanilla is nice too Just waiting for CM 7.1 to come out, and then this phone should really be amazing.
Zorachus, I would suggest that you wait another 15 days or so before making a decision to switch back to the EVO if you so choose to.
I believe within that time frame you could either have a working sense port running on your nexus S, OR EVEN perhaps you could try miui when the netarchy kernel for the nexus 4G comes out.
To be honest Miui is just as full of a rom as Sense roms themselves. Lots of nice features and a lovely UI
Thanks for all the advice appreciated I am getting more comfortable with this the Nexus. Everyday.
Main thing I miss with Sense is the default email app blows the stock Android one out of the water. And the dialer on sense was much better too. Its just those two things really.
Battery life is night and day better on this nexus compared to my evo and this phones sots in my hand better and hides in pocket easily.
Sent from my Nexus S 4G using XDA App
I just switched to the Nexus S 4G from the Evo. I picked it up last night. I was running CM 7 on the Evo so the switch wasn't that big of a deal. So far, I like the weight, the size (I agree with you on the size thing. I can handle this change) Battery life I'm not sure about but I got somewhere around 25 hours on the EVO, so we'll see how the this one handles.
I like the pure Google experience. I thought the EVO was going to be updated constantly from the manufacture but sadly its now left behind at least for now.
I'd rather have google push out my updates than rely on HTC.
and what about a desire hd? should i get ns over my dhd? really don't know.. =o\\
ok...another day with the Nexus-S, and it is growing on me finally Was having major EVO withdrawal, mainly missing a lot of the "Sense UI" stuff, but now with these new apps installed, am really starting to dig this sexy Nexy.
Here are several apps I needed to install to get rid of the lame stock ones.
- #1 was "Better Keyboard 8", a much improved keypad for texting, e-mails, etc...larger buttons, smarter layout of keys, and all black themed.
- #2 was "Go SMS", hands down the best text app, and with a cool black theme, blows away the boring stock Messaging, very customizable.
- #3 was "YouMail" Makes it just like the stock Sprint Visual Voicemail on my EVO.
- #4 was "Opera Mini" web browser, night and day faster than the stock internet, very smooth and no lagging.
- #5 was "On Call End" when done with a phone call, bring you back to home screen, instead of dialer.
- #6 was "TouchPal Dialer " shows the recent calls on top with keypad below, shows how long ago the call was made or missed, more like the "Sense UI" dialer.
- #7 was "Beautiful Widgets" a must have for the coolest clock/weather screen.
And several other apps, but these seven above were must haves, and make my Nexus-S much improved, and closer to the "Sense UI" stuff I missed from my EVO, and a lot of these apps have option for black theme which I really like on this phone.
But still the one MISSING app I can not find anywhere is a good default e-mail client for the non @gmail accounts. The default Sense UI e-mail on the EVO was ****ing spot on perfect, wish there was something in the Market to match that ?
K-9 mail?
Sent from my Nexus S using Tapatalk
Try Touchdown mail client if you like the sense mail client. I use it for my work's exchange server and am loving it!
is the dx2 bootloader locked/unlockable?
i got a dx2 today and for fun ran "adb reboot-bootloader" and got a fastboot device, but could not find any fastboot drivers and am not sure if they are the same drivers as adb.
windows 7 x64 if any one needs to know
what exactly does this mean?
The bootloader is still locked and it has the same security of all recent Motorola phones
Where did you get that screenshot? Looks like unlocking.. maybe?
i took the screenshot.
it looks like nvflash is locked. also
C:\Users\Nick\Desktop\fastboot>fastboot getvar secure
secure: yes
finished. total time: 0.003s
C:\Users\Nick\Desktop\fastboot>fastboot getvar all
INFOversion-bootloader: 1000
INFOproduct: daytona
INFOsecure: no
INFOmid: 001
INFOversion: 0.4
INFOserialno:
INFOversion-baseband: currently un-supported
all: Done
finished. total time: 0.003s
I would imagine since it is tegra 2 that it has the same restrictions as on an atrix.
why there's no specific droid x2 forum yet?
Chad_Petree said:
why there's no specific droid x2 forum yet?
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My guess would be that right now the DX2 is in limited release with full sales beginning on the 26th and hopefully we get some 2.3 love then too!
so for some reason i attempted to ask Motorola, and now they think my phone is broken...lol
before you ask why i don't really know
ZeroOveride said:
My guess would be that right now the DX2 is in limited release with full sales beginning on the 26th and hopefully we get some 2.3 love then too!
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I'd hold off until further reviews. I got mine Thursday and so far hate it. It's running no faster than the original, and in some cases slower. LauncherPro is force closing a lot, as well as the browser. The screen is awful. It's brighter, but the saturation is WAY off and makes everything unnatural. It's also not even 16.7M colors, looks to be 16-bit color. Everything is littered with poor gradients and artifacting because of it. Any text that is in color (not simply black or white) is extremely jagged because of it, too. The phone also reboots whenever I turn off my car without turning off bluetooth first. I had none of these problems with my original DX and haven't installed or done anything differently that was done on that phone.
elkay said:
I'd hold off until further reviews. I got mine Thursday and so far hate it. It's running no faster than the original, and in some cases slower. LauncherPro is force closing a lot, as well as the browser. The screen is awful. It's brighter, but the saturation is WAY off and makes everything unnatural. It's also not even 16.7M colors, looks to be 16-bit color. Everything is littered with poor gradients and artifacting because of it. Any text that is in color (not simply black or white) is extremely jagged because of it, too. The phone also reboots whenever I turn off my car without turning off bluetooth first. I had none of these problems with my original DX and haven't installed or done anything differently that was done on that phone.
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Click to collapse
No offense or anything but im not to sure what's wrong with your phone I have not had a single issue with this phone yet. Its way faster then the fascinate that's I had and yes this doesn't look as good as the fascinate but love the keyboard and the size of the screen. Runs smooth for me. The letters look no different from any other phone I have had other then the phone 4. Im enjoying this phone and for me there's nothing really to look forward to for phone in my opinion.
elkay said:
I'd hold off until further reviews. I got mine Thursday and so far hate it. It's running no faster than the original, and in some cases slower. LauncherPro is force closing a lot, as well as the browser. The screen is awful. It's brighter, but the saturation is WAY off and makes everything unnatural. It's also not even 16.7M colors, looks to be 16-bit color. Everything is littered with poor gradients and artifacting because of it. Any text that is in color (not simply black or white) is extremely jagged because of it, too. The phone also reboots whenever I turn off my car without turning off bluetooth first. I had none of these problems with my original DX and haven't installed or done anything differently that was done on that phone.
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Click to collapse
I would recommend taking that back to Verizon, seems like you have some hardware errors to me
Sent from my DROIDX using XDA App
grandlarceny77 said:
No offense or anything but im not to sure what's wrong with your phone I have not had a single issue with this phone yet. Its way faster then the fascinate that's I had and yes this doesn't look as good as the fascinate but love the keyboard and the size of the screen. Runs smooth for me. The letters look no different from any other phone I have had other then the phone 4. Im enjoying this phone and for me there's nothing really to look forward to for phone in my opinion.
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Click to collapse
It's not hardware problems, and the display problems are very obvious if you compare side by side with a DX1 or another phone that supports 16.7M. Just look at the battery icon. The green color is produced by alternating green-dark-green-dark pixels instead of the same shade for each pixel across. It produces images that are painful to look at. The text is easy to see, too. Just go to google and do a search. The dark blue highlighted links are very jagged. Here's an obvious test for the color depth problem:
Load this picture in your browser, and then load it on your phone. You will see a smooth image on your computer (unless your monitor isn't 16.7M, either) and you will see horrible banding problems on your DX2.
http://bwrc.eecs.berkeley.edu/People/Grad_Students/wrdavis/ray/24b.jpg
As far as the crashing and force-closes go, it *may* be due to LauncherPro, but I have never had problems with it up until now, and I'll be disappointed if I can't use it going forward. I've also read other reviews from people saying the phone doesn't appear to perform any better than the DX for normal phone use. Regardless, this horrible screen is a deal killer for me.
Green seems to be the most susceptible to the banding problem. Viewing this image on a computer or DX and then on the DX2 makes the problem even more blatantly obvious:
http://www.droidforums.net/gallery/data/518/MEGA-GreenGradient.png
Viewing this page makes the text problem VERY obvious:
http://bcn.boulder.co.us/community/tools/colors/sccscgrn.htm
You can't deny it's a lower quality screen. Brighter does not mean better quality.
A-HA! I think I've discovered why this is happening, and it IS a hardware limitation. The technology is called "pentile" and can be read about here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PenTile_matrix_family
After reading this, it's obvious why the green is having the largest issue with displaying properly. The Atrix apparently uses the same display and people are complaining about that one, too. Google has plenty of hits on it.
elkay said:
I'd hold off until further reviews. I got mine Thursday and so far hate it. It's running no faster than the original, and in some cases slower. LauncherPro is force closing a lot, as well as the browser. The screen is awful. It's brighter, but the saturation is WAY off and makes everything unnatural. It's also not even 16.7M colors, looks to be 16-bit color. Everything is littered with poor gradients and artifacting because of it. Any text that is in color (not simply black or white) is extremely jagged because of it, too. The phone also reboots whenever I turn off my car without turning off bluetooth first. I had none of these problems with my original DX and haven't installed or done anything differently that was done on that phone.
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Click to collapse
Wow. Got mine of Saturday and have to say all the opposite feelings. The screen is amazing. I would say it is on par with my iPhone 4's but I think the colors are better.
I think you got a bad device, I have mine rooted and it has the best Quadrant Score I've ever gotten (2755 http://yfrog.com/gy70tqwj ). The text is clear for me without any problems and have had no force closes on Launcher Pro or to the device itself. Bluetooth works flawlessly with my Pioneer in car system as well. I would say go and return it and get a replacement.
ZeroOveride said:
Wow. Got mine of Saturday and have to say all the opposite feelings. The screen is amazing. I would say it is on par with my iPhone 4's but I think the colors are better.
I think you got a bad device, I have mine rooted and it has the best Quadrant Score I've ever gotten (2755 http://yfrog.com/gy70tqwj ). The text is clear for me without any problems and have had no force closes on Launcher Pro or to the device itself. Bluetooth works flawlessly with my Pioneer in car system as well. I would say go and return it and get a replacement.
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Click to collapse
Did you click on any of the test images that I posted? And I'll say again, brighter isn't always better. The colors are very exaggerated, way too over-saturated. I'd take the iPhone 4 screen over this. At least it's more color-accurate and doesn't have the banding and green pixel problems that this has. Load the green text page that I linked and compare it to another android phone and you'll see just how bad it is.
Perfect examples of what's going on. The image quality difference is blatantly obvious. The DX1 display is the same as the top examples in each photo, the DX2 display is the same as the bottom ones.
http://expiance.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/light-text.png
http://expiance.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/stripes.png
http://expiance.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/rgbw-photo.png
Looking at the photograph example, look at the horrid loss of detail.
elkay said:
Perfect examples of what's going on. The image quality difference is blatantly obvious. The DX1 display is the same as the top examples in each photo, the DX2 display is the same as the bottom ones.
Looking at the photograph example, look at the horrid loss of detail.
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I noticed the screen while playing with a demo unit before trading my 3 day old cdma iphone 4 in. I decided it was probably the new resolution not being utilized by android properly since its probably based off the droid x and had been rushed out after so many tegra delays. I say wait for ota update to 2.3 before drawing any conclusions. that all said, the iPhones resolution is amazing but it's terrible in the light and the 3g data speeds were horrible. Both phones side by side with full bars the iphone has a latency of 500+ droid was 110 range, iphone 4:
.8 megabits
Droid x2:
2.3+ megabits
As for the speed of the phone I'm consistently getting over 2700 peaking at 3054 with airplane mode enabled, gps off and all the poorly coded widgets from motorola removed from all home screens. I'm still disappointed by the available memory (ram). The highest free was 130's with an average of 70mb. To me this indicates room for improvement and further proof that the OS is far from optimized so I'm looking forward to the 2.3 roms released here and ota.
I got a max of 712 for gpu in quadrant which is disappointing since the original galaxy s scored in the 800's. I expected more from nvidia but the galaxy was probably modified and google supposedly improved gaming with android 2.3.
So what are you guys getting in quadrant? How much free ram can you get?
hax0red said:
I noticed the screen while playing with a demo unit before trading my 3 day old cdma iphone 4 in. I decided it was probably the new resolution not being utilized by android properly since its probably based off the droid x and had been rushed out after so many tegra delays. I say wait for ota update to 2.3 before drawing any conclusions. that all said, the iPhones resolution is amazing but it's terrible in the light and the 3g data speeds were horrible. Both phones side by side with full bars the iphone has a latency of 500+ droid was 110 range, iphone 4:
.8 megabits
Droid x2:
2.3+ megabits
As for the speed of the phone I'm consistently getting over 2700 peaking at 3054 with airplane mode enabled, gps off and all the poorly coded widgets from motorola removed from all home screens. I'm still disappointed by the available memory (ram). The highest free was 130's with an average of 70mb. To me this indicates room for improvement and further proof that the OS is far from optimized so I'm looking forward to the 2.3 roms released here and ota.
I got a max of 712 for gpu in quadrant which is disappointing since the original galaxy s scored in the 800's. I expected more from nvidia but the galaxy was probably modified and google supposedly improved gaming with android 2.3.
So what are you guys getting in quadrant? How much free ram can you get?
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Click to collapse
It's a hardware limitation, no OTA can fix it. It would require a hardware revision. Read my link a few posts up that goes to a wiki about the pentile display. The pixels are literally in a different configuration inside the display.
As far as memory goes, I think that might be part of my problem somehow with the performance. I'm sitting at 9% free at idle (31MB), and notice when I exit just about any app, LauncherPro needs to reload all my widgets. I think it's being forced to dump everything when I load an app to free up memory for it. Odd thing is - I have the exact same widgets loaded on my DX and don't experience any of these problems. When you use a new launcher, the old launcher doesn't stay in memory does it? (i.e. motoblur staying in memory) I have all my motoblur homescreens blank.
Going back to what I said before about the screen, I'll take image quality over brightness. I never minded cupping my hand over the top of the display when I was in direct sunlight (which I rarely had to do anyway). I still think the DX1 display is beautiful, and far better than the DX2.
received my atrix 2 yesterday afternoon, and i thought i'd share my thoughts/experiences with it so far.
first impression was that it was a nice looking phone, a little big for my taste, but manageable. screen is beautiful, however, the size makes one handed navigating difficult. if i try to use one hand-thumb, i have to shuffle the phone up and down in my palm. i constantly feel like i am going to drop this thing.
software wise, i'm not very impressed. i read that the atrix 2 was as close to vanilla as motorola has gotten, but, wow, it's nothing like a vanilla GB rom. i had a lot of email whoes, but finally finding where moto has hidden all the settings seems to have fixed my problems. not to mention i never would have thought that messaging would contain the email apps. this rom is also the heaviest i have ever seen, weighing in at almost 400mb. the blur aspect adds a ton of services, the moto gallery reminds me of sony's mediascape.
other than some of the moto apps, i like the UI. the launcher is unbelievably similar to the new ice cream sandwich launcher (grid pattern pop up, horizontally paginated app drawer with market link, calendar widget is the same as ICS's). the email and contact apps also have a lot of similar framework as ICS's.
i do not like the stock ringtones and notifications, but this is easily remedied.
camera is great, on par with most other devices.
sound quality has been good, however, i can hear myself on the ear piece, which i do not like. signal has been good. i get 3.5 down and about 1 up vs 2 down and 1 up i get on my nexus s.
had motorola gone with a more tradition email app and did not molest the settings and left some of the blur options out, this phone would be the best i've used so far. i can't really draw an honest opinion yet though since it has been less than 24 hours. haven't really had enough time for things to either really impress me, or really annoy me, lol.
i am however, pulling the rom apart. should have a custom rom to flash by the time cwm is working fully. looking at stripping the blur stuff out, going with a more vanilla rom.
I too am not a fan of the Blur items, but I must say, with my experience with previous Moto Roms, this is the least Blurred Moto Rom I've used. Most of the blur items are just apps and you can easily use alternatives and freeze (or remove) the old. The setting are shuffled a little but I think they are still close to stock. The email app is not the best, so I simply don't use it. As for the size, a lot of that is the Webtop, it's not the Blur bloat. IMHO this Rom is more stock than most other manufacturers stock Roms.
Thanks in advance for your work on the Rom, we all look forward to seeing some dev goodness on the awesome device.
I agree. the least blurred phone ive used.
A stripped rom would be nice though.
I'd be more than happy to test it out and give feedback, count me in!
It's the least Blurred because it's NOT a Blur phone.
Although it does have a few of blurs features and adjustments...
svtfmook said:
received my atrix 2 yesterday afternoon, and i thought i'd share my thoughts/experiences with it so far.
first impression .
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Click to collapse
thx dear friend
but your review is not complate !
please tell more about phone body quality and material and assemble
how about display quality
phone speed in game play and other job
battery life with normal use ! how much day is stand !?
thx for reply
fire159 said:
thx dear friend
but your review is not complate !
please tell more about phone body quality and material and assemble
how about display quality
phone speed in game play and other job
battery life with normal use ! how much day is stand !?
thx for reply
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It was only 18 hours.
However, to add yo my original post....
The display is great. Large, bright and extremely clear.
The physical design is good my only complaints are the usb on the side, which makes using while plugged in difficult and the sheer size, which the size is due to the screen size, so i let that pass. The screen is extremely smooth and pleasant to glide around on. The rubbery back is different to say the least, but offers a comfortable grip with a soft touch.
Battery has been decent so far for me. I have a lot of signal dead spots at work, these severely hinder my battery performance, but i still get more time off charger over my other devices.
Camera is still not as good as i would prefer. So I'm waiting on the update to see how they improve the camera.
Sent from my MB865 using XDA App
I hope they do put up an update to improve the camera. The thing is, the Bionic and Razr seem to also share the same exact camera, with the same probs. Maybe once the Razr gets released for a bit they will push an update and it will trickle down to the Atrix 2, if they bothered to that is.
svtfmook said:
Camera is still not as good as i would prefer. So I'm waiting on the update to see how they improve the camera.
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Click to collapse
Many, myself included, are experiencing a noticeable cam performance using Camera Zoom FX
Sent from my MB865 using XDA App
i have looked on Amazon and could not locate any cases for this phone. Does anyone know where we can find some cases to protect this phone?
By the way, i am on day 2 and loving this phone. I have the unlocked version running on AT&T in Chicago. Getting great HSPA+ coverage.
(Coming from a Galaxy Nexus)
My initial thoughts of the HTC One S
-Battery life is great.
-Prefer this screen over the Galaxy Nexus (not sure why but it just seems more vivid).
-Love Sense 4.0. (Warning) While i love pure Android, i have always been a fan of Sense
-Like the new Sense keyboard
-Finally an HTC phone with good/clear earpiece
-Phone is super light and pocketable without feeling Sammy Cheap
- Like the social integration with contacts showing native facebook (missed this on vanilla ICS with the Galaxy Nexus....sorry...can't get friends to move to Google +)
- Threaded email.....how does native ICS not include this......
- Love the notifications on lock screen (I am also a iPhone user and this is a great feature of iOS 5).
So far no real negatives but its only day 2 with the phone. So far, I am really satisfied...i guess the only thing i miss is holding down the search key to get the voice actions.
Now....just need some help on finding a form fitting case for this phone.....
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1584765
I wonder how well Samsung's new android skin, dubbed "Magazine UX" (aka Windows Rip-off) would look on Note 3? And how long you guy's wanna bet before we start seeing ports?
http://reviews.cnet.com/tablets/samsung-galaxy-notepro/4505-3126_7-35833904.html
I hope Samsung wont force it with 4.4 on our phones. And the white background for menus is just hurting my eyes
Jack Barrett said:
I hope Samsung wont force it with 4.4 on our phones. And the white background for menus is just hurting my eyes
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I agree I'm not a fan of light backgrounds, But you have to admit it's still more attractive and less gaudy than Touchwiz. I don't currently own a Note 3 yet, I have an HTC One, and the first thing I did when I got it home, was to root it and install an AOSP ROM. I find Samsung's Android skin atrocious, but this new UX looks modern and new. First thing I'll do when I get my N3, is to strip it down and put a purer google variant on it. I'd actually prefer this though.
The white backgrounds are meant for tablets only, as pretty much every android tablet (excluding Nexus') have a lighter theme in the settings menu, notification panel etc. so that they can be seen and read easily. Many of Galaxy Tabs and Notes have a lighter and brighter white theme just like iPads.
I don't really like the new UI but it's definitely better than plain old TouchWiz, and just maybe heading to older flagship devices. It'll be interesting to see how Samsung scales it down to fit and look good on smaller screens.
Is there any way yet to port it to note 3?